But, by whatever title the ministerial policy
was designated, no one misunderstood what was intended; and as
Parliament was, after a few days, adjourned over the Christmas holidays,
the recess was spent by a sub-committee of the cabinet in framing a
measure.
The great extension of our trade, which was the fruit partly of his wise
commercial policy, and partly of the long war; the rapid and prodigious
growth of our manufactures, developed by the inventive ingenuity of our
mechanics and engineers, had given a consideration and influence to the
commercial, manufacturing, and moneyed classes which could not be
disregarded. The land-owners, who had previously almost monopolized the
representation, no longer constituted the wealthiest class of the
community. Pitt himself had raised a banker to the peerage. More
recently, men closely connected with the commercial classes had become
cabinet ministers, one of whom had even subsequently sacrificed office
to his feeling of the propriety of enfranchising a single town,
Birmingham. But there were other towns at least equal in importance to
Birmingham which were unrepresented, and it was clearly impossible to
maintain a system which gave representatives to boroughs like Gatton,
Old Sarum, or Corfe Castle--where the electors scarcely outnumbered the
members whom they elected--and withheld them from large and opulent
manufacturing centres like Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield.
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